FIFA voted this morning to expand the World Cup to 48 teams for 2026. Asia and Africa will each get four additional spots, while Europe will get three more. That only leaves five spots to be be split between CONCACAF, COMNEBOL, and Oceania. Currently Europe gets 14 spots, Africa gets 5, Asia gets 4½, COMNEBOL gets 4½, CONCACAF gets 3½, and Oceania gets ½. The USA is the current favorite to host World Cup 2026.

Not that it matters much since this is FIFA, but the North American bid for WC2026 scored a 4/5 on the official FIFA inspections while the Morocco bid scored a 2.7/5, including high risks for stadiums, accommodations, and transportation.

Congratulations to the USA Men's team for qualifying for the 2026 world cup. How is that going to affect qualifying three teams from the same region have just qualified for a region that only sends 4.5 teams max.

sdog1981 wrote:Congratulations to the USA Men's team for qualifying for the 2026 world cup. How is that going to affect qualifying three teams from the same region have just qualified for a region that only sends 4.5 teams max.

Good point... maybe they rig something up to send more than 4.5 that year. Or maybe they don’t put Canada and Mexico in automatically since they have much fewer games hosted (but I doubt it. Canada and Mexico would throw a hissy fit if they hosed teams and didn’t make it)

sdog1981 wrote:Congratulations to the USA Men's team for qualifying for the 2026 world cup. How is that going to affect qualifying three teams from the same region have just qualified for a region that only sends 4.5 teams max.

Good point... maybe they rig something up to send more than 4.5 that year. Or maybe they don’t put Canada and Mexico in automatically since they have much fewer games hosted (but I doubt it. Canada and Mexico would throw a hissy fit if they hosed teams and didn’t make it)

2026 will be the first WC to feature 48 teams, so CONCACAF will be getting six slots. They have also not officially given automatic berths to the 3 host nations for 2026 at this time.